Fwd: Winfirst to build 100 Mbps Fiber to Home network

[Gene Hastings <hastings@info-ren.org>]

>Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 08:35:32 -0400 (EDT)
>From: CAnet-3-NEWS@canarie.ca
>Subject: Winfirst to build 100 Mbps Fiber to Home network
>
>For more information on this item please visit the CANARIE CA*net 3 Optical
>Internet program web site at http://www.canet3.net
>-------------------------------------------
>
>www.winfirst.com
>
>Winfirst to build 100 Mbps Ethernet FTTH networks to homes in 7 cities
>
>Proposes to build a 3rd parallel residential network dedicated to broadband
>services only.  See original concept paper at www.canet3.net "Gigabit
>Internet to Canadian Homes by 2005"
>
>Winfirst believes in strong partnerships with municipalities and is helping
>municipalities to deploy open access conduit and fiber.  See "Getting
>Tele/Tech on local government radar" by Rich Esposto - Director of Market
>Activation Winfirst
>http://www4.nationalacademies.org/cpsma/cstb.nsf/44bf87db309563a0852566f2006d63bb/d4a118651b44c3128525693e0053b588?OpenDocument
>
>
>WINfirst today announced it has signed a five-year, $800 million agreement
>with Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) for equipment, software and services to
>build a fiber-to-the-home residential network that will provide unparalleled
>bandwidth for voice, data and video applications. The deployment also
>includes data switching equipment from Avaya (NYSE: AV) valued at $200
>million over five years.
>
>The innovative optical access network will connect each home using a
>dedicated fiber optic cable and equipment with lasers to send and receive
>information using the Internet protocol (IP) and Fast Ethernet, a networking
>transmission standard that provides 100 megabits per second (Mbps) of
>symmetric bandwidth. Using that single optical link, WINfirst's customers
>will have more than enough capacity to simultaneously download a DVD movie,
>view a sporting event from a Web site, stream a digital home video to a
>relative over the Web and hold multiple phone calls.
>
>"We are building an entirely new, fiber-optic network capable of breaking
>the 'last mile bottleneck' and Internet logjams that are currently
>frustrating residential customers," said Jim Vaughn, WINfirst's chairman and
>CEO. "After a careful review, we chose Lucent as our strategic partner
>because they provided the unique combination of advanced technologies and
>networking experience to create and deploy a network capable of delivering
>our futuristic broadband vision today."
>
>The WINfirst service will be 65 times faster than typical 1.5 Mbps
>high-speed connections offered today. This will enable people to download a
>DVD movie in eight minutes or an entire album of MP3 songs in only five
>seconds -- a process that would take eight hours and five minutes,
>respectively, over today's high-speed connections. Additionally, having the
>same bandwidth both upstream and downstream will enable people to share
>files directly with each other through true peer-to-peer networking.
>
>"Using key technologies we've developed or acquired, this agreement
>demonstrates the speed and flexibility of our team to build next generation
>networks for our customers," said Bill Nelson, president of Lucent's North
>America Region. "We worked closely with WINfirst to create a breakthrough
>network that leverages the power of optical access networking to deliver the
>promise of the broadband Internet."
>
>Bell Labs engineers developed two new products for the WINfirst network. A
>Network Demarcation Unit that is attached to the outside of customers'
>homes, terminates the fiber connection and uses a laser to send and receive
>voice, data and video traffic over the network. It also connects to a new
>Residential Ethernet Gateway that is located inside customers' homes and
>connects to their PCs and telephones.
>
>The design of the Demarcation Unit and other key components will give
>WINfirst's network the capacity to grow. The core network will have 130
>terabits per second of switching capacity and the equipment providing the
>direct connection to customers, including the Demarcation Unit, can scale
>from 100 megabits per second to multiple gigabits per second. This will
>ensure WINfirst can always provide its customers with 'the fastest route to
>the Internet and back' stated Jeff Fishburn, WINfirst's vice president of
>Technology.
>
>"With no legacy network to upgrade, WINfirst has the freedom to build a
>unique broadband network in terms of its reliability, scaleability and
>bandwidth capacity," said Christin Flynn, program manager, Carrier
>Convergence Infrastructure, The Yankee Group. "Moreover, by using Ethernet
>technology which is common to virtually every PC, WINfirst enjoys huge cost,
>interoperability and traffic management advantages on its network."
>
>WINfirst has received regulatory approval to build networks in Dallas;
>Houston; San Antonio; Austin, Texas; San Diego and Sacramento, Calif. In
>addition, WINfirst has received a network construction permit in Portland,
>Ore. Franchise applications are pending in Los Angles, San Francisco and
>Oakland, Calif., Las Vegas and Seattle.
>
>Lucent's NetworkCare(SM) Professional Services will design, integrate and
>install the next-generation network in each of WINfirst's target cities.
>Initial deployments will begin immediately in Dallas and Sacramento with
>rapid expansion to follow in Austin, San Antonio, Houston and San Diego.
>
>For additional information see www.convergedigest.com
>
>-------------------------------------------
>
>CANARIE's 6th Advanced Networks Workshop
>Theme: "The Networked Nation"
>www.canarie.ca
>
>November 28 and 29, 2000
>Palais des CongrĀs
>Montreal, Quebec - Canada
>
>On-line Registration is now available.
>
>CANARIE, Canada's Advanced Internet Development Organization, is pleased to
>host its 6th Annual Advanced Networks Workshop.
>
>This year's theme, "The Networked Nation", will focus on application
>architectures ("grids") made up of customer owned dark fiber and next
>generation Internet networks like CA*net 3 that will ultimately lead to the
>development of the networked nation where eventually every school, home and
>business will have high bandwidth connection to the Internet.
>
>The conference will have 3 separate tracks focusing on how these fundamental
>concepts in next generation Internet will contribute to the building of the
>networked nation.
>
>The first track will focus on the latest development in customer owned dark
>fiber for schools, hospitals, businesses and homes. A number of invited
>speakers from municipalities, school boards and governments from around the
>world who are in the process of deploying, or are planning to deploy
>customer owned dark fiber networks will be featured. The speakers will talk
>about their real world experiences in deploying such networks and the
>significant new applications that are made possible by these type of
>networks.
>
>The second track will focus on next generation optical Internet
>architectures that will be a natural and seamless extension of the customer
>owned dark fiber networks being built for schools, homes and businesses.
>Speakers from advanced research networks around the world who are building
>next generation Internet networks will be featured in this track. Recent
>developments in optical Internet architectures including customer-controlled
>wavelengths will also be discussed.
>
>Finally the third track will focus on the deployment of "application grids",
>which are a seamless integration of dark fiber and optical networks to
>support specific collaborative research and education applications. These
>grids allow users who have access to customer owned dark fiber or optical
>networks like CA*net 3 to undertake data collection and distributed
>computing which in turn will allow researchers, students and sometimes the
>broader public to participate in the acquisition and analysis of
>information. A number of invited speakers will talk about current
>application grids that are currently being planned or deployed including
>seismic, undersea, high energy, high performance and ecological
>applications.
>
>Application grids such as these might well point the way towards a new mode
>of science and education, one that is built on a much more distributed,
>network-enabled process of data collection and analysis, and a much more
>tightly coupled process of problem solving among researchers and educators.
>
>On-line Registration is now available.
>
>A block of rooms has been reserved at the hotel Wyndham Montreal under
>CANARIE at a special rate of $129.00. You must book your room directly with
>the hotel via one of the telephone numbers below or via fax number provided.
>The rooms will be kept no later than October 26, 2000.
>
>Hotel Wyndham Montreal
>1255 Jeanne-Mance Street
>Montreal, Quebec
>H5B 1E5
>      Tel: (514) 285-1450
>Tel: (800) 361-8234
>Fax: (514) 841-2037
>
>
>For more information contact:
>
>Susy Carriere
>susy.carriere@canarie.ca
>Tel: (613) 943-5436
>
>
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>
>-------------------------------------
>
>These news items and comments are mine alone do not in any way reflect the
>opinion of the CANARIE board or management.
>
>
>
>
>
>Bill St. Arnaud
>Senior Director Network Projects
>CANARIE
>bill.st.arnaud@canarie.ca
>+1 613 785-0426